Dietary Phytochemical Index and the Risk of Breast Cancer: A Case-Control Study.

High intakes of phytochemical-rich foods might have beneficial effects on reducing breast cancer risk. In this study, we assessed the association between the dietary phytochemical index (PI) and breast cancer risk in a sample of premenopausal Turkish women. This case-control study was conducted on 70 newly diagnosed breast cancer cases and matched 70 healthy controls. Dietary intake was assessed using a validated food frequency questionnaire and dietary phytochemical indexes were calculated with two different methods. The mean PI score of participants was 19.9 ± 9.52 and 23.0 ± 8.95 in cases and controls, respectively (p = 0.046). After adjusting for energy intake, the risk of breast cancer significantly increased by 29.5% in the third quartile as compared to the fourth quartile of dietary PI (OR = 0.295, 95%CI = 0.106-0.822). Higher dietary PI was negatively associated with breast cancer risk; therefore, dietary PI may be suggested as an important contributor to dietary intake for breast cancer.

Clinical Associations with ABO Blood Group and Rhesus Blood Group Status in Patients with Breast Cancer: A Nationwide Retrospective Study of 3,944 Breast Cancer Patients in Turkey.

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to investigate the association between A, B, O, Rhesus (Rh)-positive and Rh-negative blood groups and breast cancer in a nationwide cohort of 3,944 patients in Turkey. MATERIAL AND METHODS A retrospective study included 3,944 patients diagnosed with breast cancer between 2004 and 2015 and with known blood type. Clinical and demographic patient data included age, sex, body mass index (BMI), menopausal status. The breast tumor type, size, grade, TNM stage, and the presence of lymph node and distant metastases were noted. Histopathology of the breast tumors had included routine detection of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) and estrogen receptor (ER) levels. RESULTS The 3,944 patients with breast cancer were blood group, type A, B, O, and Rh-positive or Rh-negative; the median age was 47.9 years (range, 18.2-89.6 years); 99.5% (3923/3,844) were women, and 0.5% (21/3944) were men. Patients with blood type 0 had a significantly smaller tumor size compared with patients with blood types A or B. There were no significant differences between blood groups and patient age, BMI, menopausal status, tumor histology, ER status, HER2 status, lymph node and distant metastasis. However, there was a significant difference in the prevalence of lobular breast cancer, levels of ER-positive tumor cells, and prevalence of cases with tumor metastases in Rh-positive patients compared with Rh-negative patients. CONCLUSIONS The findings of this retrospective study showed that the type, grade, stage, and hormonal status of breast cancer showed no significant associations with ABO blood grouping.

Association between androgen receptor status and prognosis in triple negative breast cancer.

PURPOSE: Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a heterogeneous disease group with a higher recurrence risk and poorer prognosis. In this study, we aimed to investigate the frequency and prognostic value of androgen receptor (AR) expression in tissues of TNBC patients. METHODS: A total of 84 TNBC patients treated between 2000 - 2015 in Hacettepe University Cancer Institute were included and their medical records were analyzed retrospectively. The available paraffin blocks were assessed immunohistochemically to determine AR expression. Tumors with ≥1% nuclear staining were considered AR-positive, while the ones with <1% staining were considered AR-negative. We analyzed the association between AR expression, and clinical-pathologic characteristics and prognosis in TNBC. RESULTS: Of the 84 TNBC patients, 25 (29.8%) were AR-positive. The frequency of grade 3 tumors was lower among AR-positive TNBC tumors compared to AR-negative tumors (40 vs 86.4%, p<0.001). In the AR-positive group, invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) was less prevalent compared to AR-negative group (56 vs 86.4%, p<0.002). However, there were not statistically significant differences between AR positive and negative groups in terms of overall survival (OS) and disease free survival (DFS) (p=0.449, p=0.733, respectively). We found that grade 3 tumors were less frequent in AR-positive TNBC in our study. Nonetheless, we did not detect statistically significant difference in terms of overall survival and disease free survival between AR positive and negative TNBC. CONCLUSION: Routine evaluation of AR could contribute to further studies that may enlighten the role of AR targeting therapies in TNBC.